To think I can lose weight just by eating ‘normally’?

[Ribrabrob]

I’ve posted on here before about how desperate I am to lose weight (binge, secret eating etc). I’ve tried so many diets that I just cannot stick to.

I think I need to just get a handle on my eating habits and develop a ‘normal’ relationship with food. However, I desperately need to lose weight as well as it is seriously affecting my health. Aibu to think that I can lose weight with a healthy and normal balanced diet? Not calorie counting, but just eating balanced and normally.

It probably sounds a ridiculous question but I genuinely have no idea what a healthy way to lose weight is anymore. I’ve been watching some videos on tiktok of people in my situation who are just eating normal food (think cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, spaghetti bologneise for example for dinner) and I’m wondering if it really is possible.

First time I’ve ever maintained a weight loss in my adult life and it’s through eating “normally” - granted less carbs than before but that’s cause I’ve ditched the mental SW whole bag of pasta type mentality, I avoid pretty much all processed food apart from the odd treat weekend but I eat everything I like and don’t feel I’m being deprived - the key is I mentally don’t have the “diet mentality” good luck

You’d need to be mindful of portion sizes and calories I think. I had some granola yesterday- I weigh it but free hand pour most people would have double. Some fat free yoghurts are really high calorie as full of sugar. For me SlimmingWorld has worked as it’s basic low fat healthy eating. It gets slated on mumsnet but you don’t have to eat muller lights. I do it as lots of protein and veg. 1/3 every meal has to be fruit or veg or salad which cuts calories eaten and keeps you full. Weekly weigh in and group support kept me focused. Got 5 stone off in 8 months now maintaining at target for almost a year. I’d been obese for years.

Absoultly, even if you just change something about your diet like taling coffee without sugar, it can benefit your weight loss goal

I wouldn’t lose weight on that as I have PCOS, so carbs are the enemy. However I know plenty of people who have managed it successfully.

It's definitely doable and you don't have to count calories to manage it.
You just need to only eat when hungry and stop when you are full.
I've recently been reading a book about this and following it as best I can, a couple of times I have gone past the just full stage into really full but for the most part I am doing well and already feeling much better about my eating habits

I think you do need to count calories in order to portion control. A smaller plate helps too.

The book I mentioned is called 'How to retrain your appetite'

Of course it is, although the one person I know who has lost 8 stone and kept it off, does calorie count. But she also eats 'normal' food - she will have a dominos once a week, shell have leftovers for lunch, she will eat birthday cake or have nice food in pubs. She wont munch a salad miserably while others enjoy their Italian for example. But she makes up for it - so dominos for tea means a light lunch, and she only eats when shes actually hungry and stops when full. And exercise, lots if exercise

O often think those who naturally stay slim eat intuitively OP. They dont measure their milk or weigh their chicken or calculate syns or points. They eat sensibly, exercise a bit, try and eat mainly healthily but have treats too. Eg a friend of mine (we share food diaries on insta) generally has - toast, tea and a bit of fruit, more fruit or cheese or similar for snack, sandwich and crisps/small choc bar and carrot sticks or similar for lunch, then main meal which can be anything at night. Usually wine of an evening. She doesnt tend to snack except mid morning and that's because she gets up at the crack of dawn for work. Her whole attitude to food is different to mine though - if theres ben and Jerry's in the freezer but shes not actually hungry, she will leave it. Likewise if shes had 3 spoonfuls and decides shes not hungry, shell put it back. I'd really struggle with that

I’ve been sticking to 1200 calories a day in lockdown and have lost nearly a stone and a half.
I’m finding I don’t need to weight stuff quite as much now as I know what portion sizes look like. But until I knew that, I definitely overestimated portion sizes.

I've lost 8kg during lockdown. I lost the first 4 by cutting out junk and eating healthily. Then I started reducing my portion sizes, roughly by a third and then by half. I also do between 45 and 90 minutes of exercise 5 days a week. I'm 36 years old, 5'3", my starting weight was 74kg. 64kg is the max healthy weight for my height and I found an old Wii profile that said I was 60kg 10 years ago so I'm considering aiming for that but I'm already feeling so much better and energised.

I lost 2 st once by doing this. My gym gave me a plan which was great. You have something like

Up to 6 carb portions a day
1-2 fat
2-3 protein eg palm size piece of meat is one portion
1-2 dairy
5-8 veg/fruit

And the examples of portions were easy to follow- sadly I don’t have them anymore. It was calorie counted by default and worked when I had quite a bit to lose - I then had to cut down on carbs more later to keep losing.

I'd balloon if I ate 6 carbs per day 🤪

I think unless you are morbidly obese or increasing your exercise significantly then probably not. A balanced, healthy diet is for maintaining weight - you need a calorie deficit to lose weight.

@Pinkblueberry but surely if you overeat every day, perhaps large portions, several snacks, then eating a balanced diet will put you in calorie deficit.
Eventually you will maintain weight eating this way but not to begin with.

I could probably drop 500-800 cals a day by cutting out excess snacks and reducing portion sizes.

I don't think so @baconking because you can still overeat on "healthy eating". I think portion control is very important.

Try the No S diet - Its really easy eat three meals a day do not eat snacks second helpings or sweet foods except on Saturdays,Sundays and Special days, ie birthdays. I dont know how to post a link, for this diet I'v been doing this for nearly 2 weeks and have lost a couple of pounds so far. It's good as it gives you a plan to follow for life rather than go back to your old habits once the weight is gone.

@Baconking eating less than before isn’t necessarily a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is eating less than what your body needs to maintain your weight - so what your body needs to function, so that it turns to its fat reserves for the energy. If you maintain weight at say 2000 calories, and usually overeat by 2500 which is causing your weight gain, dropping 500 won’t help, unless you burn extra through exercise. That’s why I said it’s different if you’re very obese - carrying that much extra fat requires more energy, so you may well maintain your weight at 2500 or 3000 calories. A balanced, healthy day shouldn’t take you over much more than 2000 calories so then you could expect to lose weight.

I did keto about 2 years ago and lost maybe a stone, but found it hard work on a long term basis, eating out was difficult and everything needed to be amended on a menu and I was cooking 3 different meals, one for me, one for ds (he tends to get something different anyway) and one for dp.

I then put the weight back on, and started calorie counting at the start of lockdown. Started with 1200 a day and it’s worked. I’m not massively strict but keep between 1200-1500 and this works for me. I also use my Fitbit and do a minimum of 10000 steps a day which is basically an hour walk each day. I also started back doing couch to 10K and that he helped with the weight. I’ve lost just over a stone (ish) and it feels like something a lot more sustainable than keto ever was. I can have a takeaway every so often, and it doesn’t piss my whole body up. I do find that this may be a slower way of loosing weight but ultimately it seems better than keto/fasting etc. You do have to weigh stuff tho, you’d be amazed how much you can over eat without realising. I tend to have a meat part to my meal and then loads of broccoli/green beans etc as opposed to mash/roasties etc.

I have. I started lockdown 2 weeks early due to Dh being poorly at 20st 11lb. I am now 17st 12lb.

I haven’t even thought about calories. I had a body check up (not kind of thing with a dr a few weeks before lockdown) my bloods were taken, blood pressure etc and everything came back in a healthy range. But the dr did tell me because of my size i was putting a strain on my organs and joints and even though I was ‘healthy’ now it could change at any point and because of my size an illness my be worse for me than someone in a normal weight range.

I have been eating healthy meals with lots of veg. I still eat white meat but a lot of my meals are plant based. The aim was to get good food in to my body. As cheese as it sounds I saw a quote on Pinterest about how every 28 days your skin replaces its self, your liver 5 months and your body makes new cells from the food we eat. We are literally what we eat. This really opened my eyes. I wanted to be healthy.

I got a exercise bike for my room and started off with 15 minutes on level 1. I am now doing an hour a day on level 3 and I am doing Pilates mon - fri. I drink nothing but herbal/fruit tea and water.

My skin is amazing, I sleep better, I am more focused and the extra benefit is the weight loss. I expect as I get smaller it won’t be as easy to loose weight and I will have to start looking at calories but at the moment it’s working okay.

I have some slimming world, weight watchers etc and the counting, sinning foods etc just does not work for me. I also can’t be arsed to type what I’m eating on to an app everyday. It’s how I get obsessed with things.